Canadian Mining Journal January 2019

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EVs charge battery minerals market Building mines on budget JANUARY 2019 | www.canadianminingjournal.com | PM # 40069240

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CANADIANMINING

JANUARY 2019 VOL. 140, NO. 1

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CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL

BATTERY MINERALS

13 Lithium Americas prepares to tap into the electric vehicle revolution.

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BC & THE NORTHWEST

19 CMJ highlights several advanced projects in B.C., the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

FEATURES 24 Stornoway Diamond’s ore sorting success.

29 Why changing the miner-contractor relationship could get more projects built on budget.

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DEPARTMENTS 4 EDITORIAL | Technology needs take mining in new directions.

5 UNEARTHING TRENDS | Iain Thompson of EY recaps the business

lessons of 2018 and looks ahead to the industry trends of 2019.

6 CSR & MINING | Jane Church and Carolyn Burns of NetPositive explore

the subtle role of worldviews in mining.

8 COMMENTARY | Robin Goad of Fortune Minerals discusses how the rise

of electric vehicles is shaping demand for cobalt.

10 FAST NEWS | Updates from across the mining ecosystem.

www.canadianminingjournal.com JANUARY 2019

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ABOUT THE COVER

Construction at Victoria Gold’s Eagle project in the Yukon. CREDIT: VICTORIA GOLD

Coming in February Canadian Mining Journal annual PDAC Convention issue where we focus on Mining in Ontario.

For More Information

Please visit www.canadianminingjournal.com for regular updates on what’s happening with Canadian mining companies and their personnel both here and abroad. A digital version of the magazine is also available at www.digital.canadianminingjournal.com

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FROM THE EDITOR JANUARY 2019 Vol. 140 – No. 1

CANADIANMINING Technology needs take mining in new directions Marilyn Scales

JOURNAL

CMJ

Editor-in-Chief Alisha Hiyate 416-510-6742 ahiyate@canadianminingjournal.com Twitter: @Cdn_Mining_Jrnl

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he rapidly expanding role of technology in modern life is taking mining in new directions.

For producers, it means creating new means of finding deposits, developing them economically (think electric vehicles, digitization of data and cloud-based systems), and creating means of processing exotic materials.

For individuals, whether they pay much attention to the mining sector or not, technology means lightning-fast communications. People rely on their smart phones. Appliances and systems do it with the internet of things.

The desire for clean transportation is growing the electric vehicle market at an unprecedented pace. With EVs comes the need to store energy. It can come from solar collection, wind generation and other sources, but they all have one thing in common – the need to store energy when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow.

The Canadian mining industry is stepping up to the challenge. We are seeking cobalt, lithium, niobium, nickel, rare earths, vanadium and more we probably haven’t thought of yet in the search for economical energy storage.

This holds true in British Columbia, Yukon and Northwest Territories – a part of the country CMJ takes a closer look at in this issue. There are at least 30 juniors beating the bushes with exploration projects that they can hopefully advance. The project names are not yet in the mainstream mining conscience, but perhaps they soon will be – Lithium at Hidden Lake, Kootenay, Little Nahannie, Mer, Phoenix; cobalt at BC Cobalt, Kootenay (a different Kootenay), Monster, RD, Turnagain River; and many more.

There are also half a dozen development projects in the region that target not only exotic metals but base and precious metals, too – Wildsky at Cassiar (gold), Victoria Gold at Eagle (gold), NorZinc at Prairie Creek (silver-leadzinc), Goldcorp at Coffee (gold), Fortune Minerals at Nico (cobalt-gold-bismuth- copper), and Centerra at Kemess Underground (gold-copper). These projects are going to be bright lights in the western and northern economies.

CMJ takes a look at them, beginning on page 19.

As the world gears up for the challenges of energy storage, battery metals are skyrocketing in value. Robin Goad, president and CEO of Fortune Minerals, takes an in depth look at cobalt – its uses in electric vehicles and supply – beginning on page 8. Alexi Zawadski, Lithium Americas’ president of North American operations, explains how his company is preparing to be a go-to battery-grade lithium producer with a pair of mines – one in Nevada and the other in Argentina – beginning on page 13.

Mineral processors will not want to miss how Stornoway Diamond added an ore sorter and that boosted throughput and increased recovery. It starts on page 24.

CMJ 4 | CANADIAN

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News Editor Marilyn Scales mscales@canadianminingjournal.com Production Manager Jessica Jubb jjubb@glacierbizinfo.com Art Director Barbara Burrows Manager of Product Distribution Jackie Dupuis 403-209-3507 jdupuis@jwnenergy.com Publisher & Sales Robert Seagraves 416-510-6891 rseagraves@canadianminingjournal.com Sales, Western Canada George Agelopoulos 416-510-5104 gagelopoulos@northernminer.com Toll Free Canada & U.S.A.: 1-888-502-3456 ext 2 or 43734 Circulation Toll Free Canada & U.S.A.: 1-800-387-2446 ext 3505 Group Publisher Anthony Vaccaro Established 1882

Canadian Mining Journal provides articles and information of practical use to those who work in the technical, administrative

and supervisory aspects of exploration, mining and processing in the Canadian mineral exploration and mining industry.

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All rights reserved. The contents of this magazine are protected by copyright and may be used only for your personal non-commercial purposes. All other rights are reserved and commercial use is prohibited. To make use of any of this material you must first obtain the permission of the owner of the copyright. For further information please contact Robert Seagraves at 416-510-6891.

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We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada.

www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:47 PM

UNEARTHING TRENDS

New business risks on horizon, while top concerns remain the same

By Iain Thompson

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here’s no better way to sum up 2018 than with everyone’s favourite buzzword: disruption. But the truth is, it was really a year of transformation. Societal change, new technologies and the pressure to secure supply of new world commodities are irreparably changing the way mining and metals companies operate.

Business transformation was, and remains the focus for the future. The full force of change is also influencing the risk agenda for many miners.

Looking to the year ahead, licence to operate is now the number one risk facing miners, according to the EY report Top 10 business risks facing mining and metals in 2019-2020.

That’s up from seventh place in 2018. Rounding out the top three risks are digital effectiveness and maximizing portfolio returns – both reoccurring top themes from last year.

Here’s what we’re hearing from Canadian miners as we welcome the new year.

Holistically addressing licence to operate If last year taught us anything it’s that the stakeholder landscape is changing. Access to information and bigger platforms means stakeholders know – and ask – for more. Nationalism is also a growing concern globally. Leading miners know the traditional approach to social licence to operate isn’t enough.

It’s time to redefine the sector’s image as a sustainable and responsible source of the world’s minerals.

Social and environmental issues – although still relevant – cannot be the core focus anymore. It’s about increasing shared value out of each project, and proactively and strategically managing stakeholders’ changing expectations. The Embankment Project for Inclusive Capitalism, launched recently by the Coalition for Inclusive Capitalism and EY, confirmed that a company’s value is increasingly reflected in intangible assets – including impact on society. For miners, achieving that means redefining partnerships with the community, government and employees so that business purpose exists beyond the life of the mine. It’s not an easy balance, with each member having a different agenda and issues they want met, but failing to create value for all stakeholders can impact the ability to access capital or even result in loss of licence.

Enhancing digital effectiveness Digital effectiveness topped the risks last year as companies sought to address productivity and margin challenges inherited JANUARY 2019

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It’s time to redefine the sector’s image as a sustainable and responsible source of the world’s minerals.

at the end of the super cycle.

Embracing digital wasn’t a new concept for the sector, but a disconnect between the potential of complete digital transformation and how technologies are being implemented soon emerged. That’s not to say implementation has been unsuccessful. Miners have made great headway in the automation of haulage, rail, trucks and drilling. The use of predictive analytics has also helped to reduce maintenance costs and improve equipment availability.

The challenge now is that mining and metals companies must move away from narrowing in on solving single issues or bottlenecks, and look more holistically at how they deliver on a complete transformation. Vale’s Global Integrated Operations Centre is a great example of this. EY partnered with the company back in 2017 to integrate and synchronize different stages of operations in Brazil and abroad – including planning, scheduling and control – to bring visibility of the whole iron ore chain, allowing it to act in a more agile way.

Maximizing portfolio returns Part of the challenge to embracing digital is that budgets are not where they need to be. Investments in digital are currently sitting at around 5% of total budget spend, when they should be close to or upwards of 20%. Some of the holdup, in part, is finding the right portfolio mix between investing in building or acquiring new mines and considering how much capital to allocate to innovation and transformative technologies. In the wake of higher commodity prices and rising cash flow, mining and metals companies must be critical of capital allocation decisions to ensure the highest future returns.

It’s no surprise that digital is a key theme driving top risks facing mining and metals companies, as well as spurring the entrance of new risks this year like fraud, disruption, rising costs and future of work. Disruption won’t soon be a word we retire.

It’s here to stay, impacting every element of mining and metals’ operations. To get ahead, players will need to use capital and collaboration to their advantage as they transform and protect themselves from steady and upcoming business risks.

CMJ IAIN THOMPSON is the EY Canada Mining & Metals Advisory leader. He is based in Vancouver. For more information, visit www.ey.com/miningrisks.

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CSR & MINING

Mining for good: The role of worldviews

By Jane Church & Carolyn Burns

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atural resource development is a catalyst that brings together individuals and groups with divergent worldviews. When this happens, there is an increased opportunity for tension and conflict, which makes it difficult for people to work together as partners, make decisions collaboratively, and address issues that affect social outcomes.

A worldview is the set of values and beliefs that influence the way that an individual or group behaves and makes decisions.

A person or group’s worldviews are influenced by many different elements, such as life experience, religion, economic standing, history, geography of an area, experience with land tenure, social systems, and institutions, media, social rhetoric and civil society. Groups of people can share worldviews, especially groups that have shared histories, positions, religions, and economic opportunities, or people from similar generations or geographies. Every society is based on a certain set of worldviews. As a result, the systems and structures that we use to function as a society, such as free-market economics or capitalism, are based on and reinforce worldviews. Worldviews are often deeply held and the group that holds the most power often wants their worldview to dominate.

The role of worldviews is relevant to many aspects of mining.

Worldviews affect corporate culture and often play a subtle role until they’re thrown into the spotlight. For example, worldviews and corporate culture are central to the push for diversity in the mining sector. As scores of workers retire, the industry will need to attract new workers. These workers are likely to have very different worldviews, based on age, culture, gender and other work experience. A corporate culture that supports diverse worldviews (as opposed to promoting one type of worldview) will attract and retain this talent. Worldviews and culture are also at the core of successful mergers and acquisitions. Many people are curious about how the Barrick Gold and Randgold merger will play out in terms of corporate culture. Will one dominate the other? Will a new culture emerge?

The tension between divergent worldviews is often seen in company-community relationships. The extractive sector has historically been dominated by company worldviews. This is because companies usually have more control than communities over decision-making and set the tone for their relationship.

The mining industry does not have a good track record of respecting the worldviews of the communities and governments it works with. This has had a long-term impact on relationships.

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Worldviews are often deeply held and the group that holds the most power often wants their worldview to dominate.

It has contributed to longer permitting timelines, protests and mining bans. At the end of the day, our inability to manage tensions between worldviews is affecting the future of the industry.

It’s important to remember that community worldviews are not necessarily incongruent with extractive development.

There are many beliefs and values that influence community decision-making, such as concerns about livelihoods, spiritual and cultural land use, and desires for economic growth. These play out in the mining context regularly. Community members are eager for jobs, education opportunities and the other benefits that come from mining activities. But at the same time, they are concerned about impacts on water and the ability of future generations to use and connect to the land and the environment. They are concerned about new people moving into their community and the pressure that can put on services, infrastructure, and family dynamics.

When stakeholders are aware of and manage the tensions between their worldviews, it is easier to develop partnerships and work together towards a common vision. Managing tensions between worldviews refers to finding ways to meet in the middle and to achieve common goals in creative ways.

Understanding your own worldview and that of others is the first step. Here are some practical suggestions for how mining professionals can do that: Take the time to listen to other people’s perspective. Try to understand the objective of the person or group you are talking to, negotiating with, planning with. Try to identify their main concern and the values that underpin it. Why does the community take environmental monitoring seriously? Why is land access to that specific area so important? Why do community employees want certain weeks off? www.canadianminingjournal.com

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“Don’t close the door on [employees] that mess up – accommodate different schedules, don’t make communities stick to your way of thinking. When companies are hiring people, ask about time off and how to accommodate cultural needs. Industry often sets targets or is forced to hire locally, but then they get away with saying that people don’t work out and have the excuse that they don’t need to hire locally.

This just confirms the company’s way of thinking, as opposed to trying to work with local context.”

– Community member Don’t assume your way is the only way to do something.

For example, if you are planning an environmental monitoring program, how can you ask the local community for their advice? Or, can you partner with communities to build monitoring programs based on their knowledge? When you are developing a mine plan, how can you include community perspectives? Can you adjust where a haul road is positioned to accommodate concerns about land access? This not only demonstrates respect, but you will likely find better ways of working in the local environment where the community has more experience than you.

“We need to listen and understand. We need to acknowledge that we’re not from here and don’t know much. We just have a concept for some work we want to do.”

- Company representative Remember that people and groups don’t have one homogenous worldview. Try to identify the various concerns,

hopes and values that a person or group has. Communities can be both for and against a mining development. They can be concerned about cumulative effects on the environment and excited for the economic and job opportunities. People and groups have many overlapping and sometimes conflicting priorities and experiences that result in complex worldviews.

“Everyone is dealing with the same evolution of their worldviews and from their own angles. If leaders and opinion makers could drive those discussions more openly in society it would lead to better outcomes.”

– Government representative n Quotes are excerpted from some of NetPositive’s collaborative research projects

(see HYPERLINK “http://www.netpositivenr.org/”www.netpositivenr.org). CMJ

CAROLYN BURNS is director of operations at NetPositive, a non-profit that works with diverse stakeholders to help local communities see sustained positive outcomes from mining.

JANE CHURCH is a co-founder and director of collaboration with NetPositive.

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COMMENTARY

New cobalt supply central to growing electric vehicle market

By Robin Goad

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Consumption in batteries has driven a 20+ year 6% compounded annual growth rate in cobalt use.

of the constituent metals. Cobalt, together with other metals, is needed in the cathodes to produce the preferred balance between performance, energy density, charge time, charge life, safety, and cost. The cell structure requires a minimum amount of cobalt (about 5%), unless lower energy density lithium-ion batteries without cobalt are used at the expense of performance.

A typical smart phone battery requires only 5 to 20 grams of cobalt, whereas an EV requires between 4 and 30 kg.

Automotive electrification is just getting started with about 2% of all cars sold today being electric. Bloomberg estimates that 25% of automobiles sold in 2030 will be electric, and even faster adoption is planned by German automotive producers who project 25% adoption by 2025. Irrespective of different EV penetration forecasts, it is a fact that EV sales are accelerating as more countries announce future bans on internal combustion engines and people are incentivized to purchase lower emission vehicles to reduce our carbon footprint. China, for example, is penalizing purchasers of gasoline-powered cars in major cities with fees and other costs that do not apply to EVs. Lithium-ion battery prices are also declining, charging takes less time, and the range provided by batteries is more competitive with a tank of gas.

The EV transformation was validated by more than

Photo: Daisy-Daisy, iStockimges.com

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obalt is a technology and energy metal with unique physical and chemical properties making it ideal for use in a wide range of metallic and chemical applications. Historically, consumption was dominated by metal alloys, leveraging cobalt’s high strength at elevated temperatures, strong magnetics, and wear and corrosion resistance – properties needed in aerospace superalloys, cutting tools, binders for cemented carbides, permanent magnets, prosthetics – and recently, semi-conductors.

But the market has transitioned over the past two decades, reflecting growing demand for cobalt in chemicals, and particularly the compounds used to make rechargeable batteries.

Consumption in batteries has driven a 20+ year, 6% compounded annual growth rate in cobalt use. Batteries now account for 60% of a 125,000-tonne market, up from 1% of a smaller 35,000-tonne market in the mid-1990s. Cobalt chemicals are also used in catalysts to refine petroleum, make plastics and steel belted radial tires, dryers, pigments, food additives and agricultural products. The cobalt market is in a supply deficit, but most analysts believe it will be in balance or in a small surplus after the ramp up of the Katanga and Roan Tailings projects in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) next year. There is general consensus, however, that strong demand growth from electric vehicle (EV) mass adoption in the early 2020s will push the market into a sustained period of shortages until new deposits are developed.

Until recently, rechargeable batteries were used primarily in small portable electronic devices, including mobile phones, notebook computers, games and power tools. Growth in demand reflected a two-decade evolution in battery technology and increasing energy density from nickel-cadmium to nickel-metal hydride and to today’s lithium-ion chemistries.

Lithium-cobalt oxide (LCO) cathode chemistry, containing up to 60% cobalt by weight, is the standard cell powering small devices because it delivers the highest volumetric energy density, enabling thin batteries preferred by consumers.

Since the first Ford Model T’s rolled off the production line in 1908, cars and oil have shared a bond that reshaped global industrial activity and energy supply. New lithium-ion chemistries are enabling a disruptive transformation of the automotive industry with electric drivetrains replacing internal combustion engines. Nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) and nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) are the preferred cathodes in EVs and contain 5% to 30% cobalt, depending on the ratios

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400,000 pre-orders for the Tesla Model 3. Further validation comes from the billions of dollars being invested in EVs by automotive OEMs and in battery megafactories. The 2016 commissioning for the first phase of the US$5-billion, 35-GWh Gigafactory joint venture between Tesla and Panasonic was an early trend setter to a global megafactory phenomenon. On achieving full production, the Gigafactory will reportedly consume up to 7,000 tonnes of cobalt per year.

And whereas battery production was about 120 GWh in 2016, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence is now tracking 64 lithium-ion battery megafactories approaching 1.5 TWh of production by 2028. In November 2018, the board of Volkswagen, the largest producer of automobiles in the world, approved a US$50-billion investment to begin mass production of EVs in Europe with the conversion of three plants in Germany. This financial commitment is indicative of the investments being made in automotive electrification by all of the major OEM brands all over the world.

Lithium-ion batteries are also being used to store energy in the electrical grid as well as smaller-scale residential and industrial storage to make energy use more efficient. Because 85% of power is consumed in just 15% of the day, off-peak charging of batteries can store power for use during periods of greater energy demand. Storage also enables intermittent renewable wind and solar power generation to be used in base load. The Hawaiian island of Kauai, for example, is now powered almost entirely by solar energy with battery backup, and hybrid power supplies are being installed at industrial sites, including remote mines to improve energy efficiency and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

Benchmark estimates that by 2028, the cobalt industry will need to produce well over 200,000 tonnes of cobalt in battery grade chemicals each year. This will push total annual cobalt demand to between 250,000 and 300,000 tonnes with the inclusion of consumption in other products. Solid-state batteries, generally considered to be the next generation technology for EVs, are also expected to contain similar cobalt-bearing cathodes.

Supply Cobalt mine supply is dominated by African Copper Belttype deposits in the Congo that are responsible for about 70% of global production, growing to 75% with the Katanga and Roan tailings ramp ups. Other countries, including China, Canada and Russia produce cobalt as a byproduct of magmatic nickel sulphide deposits, and nickel-cobalt laterite deposits are mined in Australia, the Philippines, Cuba, Papua JANUARY 2019

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New Guinea and Madagascar. About 15% of the world’s mine supply is from Congolese artisanal mines that are under growing scrutiny from Amnesty International and the Responsible Business Alliance for use of child labour, unsafe working conditions and environmental degradation. Geographic concentration of cobalt mine supply in the politically unstable Congo and concerns about supply chain transparency and ethical procurement of raw material are identified risks to the global supply chain. Additionally, because 98% of non-artisanal cobalt supply is mined as a byproduct where the primary metals determine project economics, there is a risk of cobalt production being less responsive to market demands. China has also been investing heavily in Congo cobalt production and setting up networks to purchase artisanal cobalt oxide materials, exacerbating geographic concentration of supply and supply chain transparency concerns.

Cobalt refinery supply is dominated by China, which is now responsible for about 60% of global refined products, and 80% of cobalt chemicals. Refined cobalt metals and/or chemicals are also produced in Finland, Canada, Japan, Norway, Australia, Belgium and Zambia. However, China is proactively consolidating its position in the supply chain for cobalt as part of a strategic drive to lead the global race to EV mass adoption and ensure its factories have access to the raw materials they need and is a policy risk.

Due to supply chain concerns, for other countries are proactively looking at investments in cobalt procurement and advocating for supply chain transparency and ethical mine production. Japan for example, is arranging a consortium of domestic companies to secure cobalt for its industry. It, and other countries, are also looking at direct investment in projects outside of the Congo, particularly safe mining jurisdictions such as Canada and Australia. Regardless of its history of corruption and instability, and concerns about some artisanal mine production, the Congo will continue to be the world’s largest producer. Like any commodity, the cobalt market will ultimately respond to industry’s needs, and higher prices will lay the groundwork to new discoveries needed to balance the market. But this will require a period of sustained higher cobalt prices at or above the current US$30-35 per lb. in order to ensure that new mines come on stream. Cobalt thrifting in batteries and metal recycling will also be necessary CMJ to mitigate the future demand pull.

ROBIN GOAD is the president and CEO of Fortune Minerals, which is advancing the NICO cobalt-gold-bismuth-copper project in the Northwest Territories.

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FAST NEWS

Updates from across the mining ecosytem

• ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE |

Goldcorp and IBM launch IBM Exploration with Watson

Goldcorp’s Red Lake complex, in northern Ontario. CREDIT: GOLDCORP

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oldcorp and IBM have co-authored an innovative first of a kind technology product: IBM Exploration with Watson will improve predictability for gold mineralization. The solution applies artificial intelligence to predict the potential for gold mineralization and uses powerful search and query capabilities across a range of exploration datasets.

“The potential to radically accelerate exploration target identification combined with significantly improved hit rates on economic mineralization has the potential to drive a step-change in the pace of value growth in the industry,” said Todd White, executive vice-president and COO. Developed using data from Goldcorp’s Red Lake Gold Mines in northern Ontario, IBM Exploration with Watson leverages spatial analytics, machine learning and predictive models, helping explorers locate key information and develop geological extrapolations in a fraction of the time and cost of traditional methods.

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“Applying the power of IBM Watson to these unique challenges differentiates us in the natural resources industry,” said Mark Fawcett, partner with IBM Canada. “We are using accelerated com-

• CONTRACTING |

puting power for complex geospatial queries that can harmonize geological data from an entire site on a single platform.

This is the first time this solution has been ever used, which makes this project all the more significant.”

At Red Lake, IBM Exploration with Watson provided independent support to drill targets planned by geologists via traditional methods and proposed new targets which were subsequently verified.

Drilling of some of these new targets is ongoing, with the first target yielding the predicted mineralization at the expected depth.

“Timelines are short in mining and exploration. I am excited to see the improvements we can make with the data platform and gold mineralization predictions,” said Maura Kolb, Goldcorp’s exploration manager at Red Lake Gold Mines. “These tools can help us view data in totally new ways. We have already begun to test the Watson targets from the predictive model through drilling, and results have been impressive so far.”

The IBM Watson initiative recently earned Goldcorp a prestigious Ingenious Award in the large private sector category from the Information Technology Association of Canada (ITAC).

CMJ

NA Palladium signs development contract with Redpath

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oronto-based North American Palladium has signed a major mine development contract with Redpath Canada of North Bay, Ont. The expansion will double the

capacity of the mine and mill to 12,000 t/d from 6,000 t/d. The project is located 85 km northwest of Thunder Bay. The contractor will conduct underground development for a major expansion at the Lac des Îles palladium mine. To access ore reserves in the upper mine beneath and around the perimeter of the dormant Roby open pit, 6,550 metres of lateral and 560 metres of vertical development will take place. The work is expected to take approximately two years.

NAP’s own development crews will continue their work, which is expected to bring the mining rate up to 7,000 t/d by the end of 2019.

CMJ

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2018-12-21 12:51 PM

• AWARDS |

Roy Slack named SAMSSA’s 2018 Cementation Canada’s Hall of Fame inductee

BATTERY POWER

ENGINEERED FOR LIFE UNDERGROUND.

Roy Slack, president of Cementation Canada. CREDIT: CEMENTATION

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he Sudbury Area Mining Supply and Service Association (SAMSSA) honoured Roy Slack, President of Cementation Canada as the organization’s 2018 Hall of Fame inductee. Roy has been instrumental as a service provider to the mining sector for over 35 years, much of that time spent in the Sudbury and North Bay regions.

Roy commented that “being recognized by my peers within SAMSSA, the greatest conglomeration of mining service providers in the world is truly a great honour.” Roy’s continued dedication to the mining industry has been demonstrated through the numerous companies and organizations he has committed countless time and energy towards, supporting all stakeholders interests.

Roy’s passion for the mining service industry is demonstrated in the conclusion of his acceptance speech as SAMSSA’s 2018 Hall of Fame inductee. Roy said, “I fell in love with building mines, and then building companies to build mines. The process from concept to design to completion, and the people who do the work, I am still in awe of. Our industry, the mine service industry, continues to strive to make our work safe and efficient so more of our clients can realize their dreams of having an operating mine. We just want to realize our dream of building it for them.”

Cementation is a mine and facilities contracting and engineering company. The Cementation group of companies delivers underground mine development and infrastructure as well as surface material handling and processing facilities solutions for mining projects worldwide.

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MCEWEN

MINING

FAST NEWS • AUTOMATION |

Outperforming Our Peers and The Broader Market

Updates from across the mining ecosytem

Sandvik, Nokia collaborate to boost IoT on LTE and G5 networks

From Jan 2016

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ontinuing its focus on internet of things (IoT) solutions for the mining industry, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology has signed an agreement with Nokia to further develop Sandvik solutions for private LTE and 5G technology. The Nokia Digital Automation Cloud (NDAC) platform offers pervasive connectivity enabling advanced applications, and will initially be implemented and tested in the Sandvik test mine in Tampere.

Sandvik’s decades-long work in automation has grown to include robust data analytics and process optimization offerings, where connectivity and local computing power are crucial. Applications requiring high capacity and low latency are becoming increasingly important.

Private LTE networks bring reliable and secure high capacity, low latency and wide coverage mobile broadband to serve mission and business critical industrial connectivity needs and offer a variety of terminals, sensors and other devices. The

• DRILLING |

Nokia digital automation platform will operate both underground and in open pit mines, and offers a flexible connectivity platform for testing and developing Sandvik technology. This network enables operation of autonomous vehicles, real-time monitoring of underground and outdoor premises to keep people and equipment safe, remote diagnostics and predictive maintenance, as well as asset management, control and authentication.

“Sandvik is a leader in mine automation and digitalization, and Nokia offers leading technology in wireless connectivity. Together, we create innovative solutions for mining customers,” said Riku Pulli, VP automation, Sandvik Mining and Rock Technology.

CMJ

Epiroc delivers first autonomous rig to BHP

S

wedish supply company Epiroc has delivered the first autonomous drill rig to BHP Group’s South Flank iron ore project in the Pilbara. The rig, an Epiroc Pit Viper 271, is operational and marks the beginning of autonomous production drilling at the mine.

BHP plans to operate a total of five autonomous drills at South Flank. All the drills will be remotely controlled from BHP’s integrated remote operations centre (IROC) in Perth.

Epiroc has worked with BHP to provide autonomous drilling technology to other Pilbara mines. The company now has 20 fully autonomous drills at Yandi, Mining Area C, Jimblebar, Mt. Whaleback and Eastern Ridge.

The Pit Viper 271 boasts productivity in rotary tricone and down-the-hole drilling in diameters of 170 mm to 270 mm. It features single pass performance, a standard electronic air regulation system, and a robust design.

CMJ

info@mcewenmining.com | mcewenmining.com

12 | CANADIAN

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www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:51 PM

BATTERY MINERALS

Lithium Americas’ Thacker Pass project in Nevada.

CREDIT: LITHIUM AMERICAS

Lithium Americas

poised to tap into EV revolution

By D’Arcy Jenish

A

lexi Zawadski, president of North American operations for Vancouver-based Lithium Americas, believes the company is on the cusp of something big and – to make the point – he employs an historical analogy. “It’s kind of like 1910,” he says. “You look outside and you see a Model T go by and you think: should I get into oil?”

Fast forward a century and a bit and the question becomes: should I get into lithium? To which Zawadski would

JANUARY 2019

13-18_CMJ Dec2018_Lithium.indd 13

Alexi Zawadski.

reply: absolutely. Lithium is a critical component in the batteries of the future, which will store electricity generated by wind and solar power and will provide the energy needed to move cars, trucks and all manner of vehicles.

“Lithium is the most exciting space in mining right now,” he says. “You can tie it to the recent decision General Motors made. They’re closing plants producing vehicles powered by internal combustion engines and focusing on electric vehicles.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 14

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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BATTERY MINERALS

Thacker Pass has the potential to satisfy the entire U.S. lithium demand, or at least a high percentage of it.

– ALEXI ZAWADSKI, PRESIDENT OF NORTH AMERICAN OPERATIONS FOR LITHIUM AMERICAS

They’re looking at a 100 per cent electric fleet.”

It’s a revolution in the making and Lithium Americas is positioned to take advantage of it. The company is currently developing two lithium mines – the Cauchari-Olaroz project in northwestern Argentina and the Thacker Pass project in northern Nevada. Both are scheduled to be in production by the early to mid2020s, but the similarities end there.

Cauchari-Olaroz is a conventional lithium brine project. Lithium Americas owns 62.5% of the project, with the balance held by Shanghai-based Ganfeng Lithium and that’s neither accident or coincidence.

The Chinese are minor players in lithium mining, but they lead the world in upgrading lithium concentrate to battery-quality lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide. “Twenty years ago they looked at the automotive industry and asked themselves ‘Why are we so bad at it?’” Zawadski says. “They realized they were never going to catch up on internal combustion engines. One of the core economic development policies in China was to invest in electric vehicles and battery technology. They’ve eclipsed the entire world.”

And that includes the United States, which is the world’s largest consumer of lithium, but only produces two per cent of it. The problem for the U.S. is both economic – since lithium consumption is expected increase readily in coming years – and strategic since the U.S. military uses lithium-based batteries in everything from computers and commu14 | CANADIAN

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Top: The Thacker Pass property in Nevada. CREDIT: LITHIUM AMERICAS Above: Lithium Americas’ Cauchari-Olaroz lithium brine project in Argentina. CREDIT: LITHIUM AMERICAS

nications devices to night vision equipment and emerging weapons technology.

Indeed, President Donald Trump issued an executive order in 2017 declaring lithium a “critical mineral.”

“This is very important for our project because Thacker Pass has the potential to satisfy the entire U.S. lithium demand, or at least a high percentage of it,” says Zawadski. “It’s that large.”

The market-ready product, which can be used in battery production, is known

as lithium carbonate equivalents (LCE).

Zawadski says Thacker Pass will produce about 60,000 tonnes per year once the mine is in full production. Global production currently ranges from 230,000 to 250,000 tonnes per year, but is expected to reach 800,000 to 1.1 million tonnes by 2025.

Lithium Americas acquired Thacker Pass in 2015 from a company called Western Lithium, which had delineated a deposit capable of producing 26,000 www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:52 PM

Drilling at Thacker Pass.

CREDIT: LITHIUM AMERICAS

Lithium Americas acquired Thacker Pass in 2015 from Western Lithium, which had delineated a deposit capable of producing 26,000 tonnes of LCEs annually for 20 years.

First, the clay ore will be washed with water in an agitator. The ore will then be placed in large vats filled with sulphuric acid. The mineral will dissolve to form a lithium sulphate brine while the clay and other impurities settle at the bottom of the vat. The lithium sulphate brine will then be sent to crystallization compatonnes of LCEs annually for 20 years. The new owners conducted exploratory drilling in 2017 and 2018. Zawadski says they discovered some of the richest deposits – as measured in parts per million. They more than doubled the potential annual output and extended the projected life of mine to 46 years.

Furthermore, the ore is easily accessible. The deposit begins, on average, 30 feet below surface, yielding a very low strip ratio of 1.6:1. And it is a rich ore body – averaging 3,300 parts per million while some seams hold over 8,000 ppm. “Our ore is two to three times higher grade than comparable projects in the U.S.,” he says.

They have also developed a method for processing the ore that has not been used in lithium mining. The previous owners had planned to apply the crushing, grinding and flotation process used in hard rock lithium, which Zawadski likens to “using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.”

The lithium in Thacker Pass is found in much softer sedimentary rock and the company adjusted its thinking to fit the resource. Processing will essentially happen in three stages – washing, leaching and crystallization.

JANUARY 2019

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nies that will turn the clear liquid into a white powder, which will require further upgrading before it is considered battery quality.

“This is not a new technology,” says Zawadski. “It’s widely used across the U.S. in the phosphate industry. It’s quick

CONTINUED ON PAGE 16

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BATTERY MINERALS

North American Lithium’s spodumene mine in Quebec.

CREDIT: NORTH AMERICAN LITHIUM

and cost-effective and it’s environmentally sustainable.”

The company plans to build a co-generation plant that will produce sulphuric acid by blending elemental sulphur with water – a process that generates excess heat. Zawadski says the company can capture that heat and use it to produce steam that generates electricity. He adds that the plant will generate more electricity than the company needs to run its own operations and the excess can be sold to the local electrical grid.

“Our electricity will be a premium product because it’s firm energy in an area that is rapidly expanding into renewables, primarily solar,” says Zawadski. “It will help stabilize the grid.”

At this point, Lithium Americas expects to have the first phase of its mine in production by 2023. The company 16 | CANADIAN

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13-18_CMJ Dec2018_Lithium.indd 16

Critical Elements’ Rose lithium tantalum project in Quebec. CREDIT: CRITICAL ELEMENTS

intends to file a refined Mine Plan of Operation with the Federal Bureau of Land Management by mid-2019 and hopes to have construction permits by the end of 2020.

Meanwhile, the company is building a pilot plant in Reno, Nevada to optimize

the process for producing sulphuric acid and generating electricity. And it is seeking a joint venture partner to help finance the development of the mine, which comes with a hefty price tag attached $581 million (U.S.) for the first phase and $478 million for the second. www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:52 PM

QUEBEC LITHIUM SECTOR TAKES ROOT

JANUARY 2019

13-18_CMJ Dec2018_Lithium.indd 17

of spodumene per year and by late 2018 was operating at about two-third capacity on average.

North American currently employs 300 people, but that figure could grow.

The next stage in the project, Blanchette says, is to activate the refinery, which was designed to upgrade

the spodumene to battery quality lithium carbonate.

The next advanced project in Quebec, Nemaska Lithium’s Whabouchi mine in the James Bay region, and its electrochemical plant are in the construction stage. The company expects concentrate production to begin

CONTINUED ON PAGE 18

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artin Blanchette is a mining industry veteran with years of experience in iron ore and nickel projects, but he faced an unexpectedly steep learning curve when he became general manager of North American Lithium’s open pit mine and processing mill near La Corne, Que. in the province’s Abitibi region. “Nobody here had a background in lithium,” Blanchette says. “We had to learn everything from scratch. We’ve come a long way, but we’ve still got a ways to go.”

Quebec, of course, has a rich history in mining – primarily base and precious metals. Lithium is the proverbial new kid on the block and the province is poised to become a major producer in the next few years. All told, seven lithium mines are in development and North American is leading the pack.

A company called Quebec Lithium (later RB Energy) built the mine, mill and a refinery between 2012 and 2014, but ran out of funds at the commissioning stage and wound up in receivership.

Jilin Nickel, a Chinese company, acquired the assets in 2016, formed North American Lithium and later sold it to Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd., which is based in Nindge, China and is the world’s largest manufacturer of lithium-ion batteries for electric vehicles.

Blanchette and his team restarted mining operations in February 2017 and by June were ready to begin processing the ore using conventional crushing, grinding and flotation technology. All went well until they got to flotation. “The equipment is the same, but the chemistry is very different,” Blanchette says. “For the first few months we’d try something but we really didn’t know what we were going to get. It was like we were blindfolded.”

By November, after considerable trial and error, as well as consulting with equipment and chemical suppliers, they began to get predictable results. Ore that went into flotation with 1.2-1.6% lithium came out as a spodumene concentrate containing 5.5-6% lithium – a commercial grade concentrate. The mill is designed to produce 200,000 tonnes

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2018-12-21 12:53 PM

BATTERY MINERALS

in the second half of 2019, followed by lithium salts production about a year later.

Sayona Quebec, a subsidiary of Australia’s Sayona Mining, has completed a definitive feasibility study on it Authier lithium project, which is located 45 km northwest of Val d’Or. The company purchased the property in

2016 for a mere $4 million. “They wanted to buy an asset that could be operational in the next two to three years to catch the wave of demand for lithium,” says Sayona Quebec general manager Jonathan Gagne.

He and his team hope to begin construction in second half of 2019 and to begin mining by the end of 2020. They

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are planning an open pit mine, which will eventually be 1,000 metres long, 600 metres wide and 200 metres deep.

Based on reserves of 12 million tonnes and a resource estimated at 21 million tonnes the mine could be in production for 18 years and employ 160 people at peak production.

The company plans to sell spoduPage 1 mene concentrates initially, but is studying the feasibility of developing a downstream processing facility to produce lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide.

Critical Elements Montreal-based Critical CEO Jean-Sebastien Elements is one of several Lavallee says the companies with a project in company is working development in the James Bay on plans for an open Region. Its flagship Rose projpit mine with a life of ect is located 40 km north of Cree village of Nemaska 17 years and capable the and has access to a nearby road of producing over while hydro lines pass right 186,000 tonnes of over the site. The company has spodumene per year. completed drilling and exploration and has reserves estimated at 26.8 million tonnes.

It has also completed a feasibility study and submitted an environmental impact study to the federal and provincial government.

A power line at Critical Elements’ Rose lithiumCEO Jean-Sebastien Lavallee says tantalum project in the company is working on plans for an Quebec. open pit mine with a life of 17 years CREDIT: CRITICAL ELEMENTS and capable of producing over 186,000 tonnes of spodumene per year. As well, the company is currently looking for an equity partner to help finance the $400 CMJ million project. www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:53 PM

BC & THE NORTHWEST

NEW MINES COMING TO

GOLD, COPPER, COBALT, SILVER, ZINC, LEAD AND BISMUTH PRODUCERS ON HORIZON

By Marilyn Scales

Wildsky Resources’ Cassiar gold property in B.C. CREDIT: WILDSKY RESOURCES

JANUARY 2019

19-23_CMJ Dec2018_BC Northwest.indd 19

F

inding new mine developments in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and British Columbia is easy enough to do. What requires more effort is remembering that the projects outlined below have been many years in the making. They represent the tip of the iceberg – there are many others in various stages of exploration.

In the meantime here are six projects being taken to production in the near future.

CONTINUED ON PAGE 20

CANADIAN MINING JOURNAL |

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BC & THE NORTHWEST

VICTORIA GOLD, EAGLE (DUBLIN GULCH)

Victoria Gold, Eagle (Dublin Gulch)

Construction is underway at Victoria’s Gold’s Eagle open pit gold project in the Yukon, and the project is expected to pour first gold in the second half of 2019.

The Eagle project has been shovel ready for some time, but it wasn’t until March 2018 that the junior announced a financing deal to build it. Victoria has arranged the funding from several partners – Orion Mine Finance (in the form of debt facilities), Osisko Gold Royalties (a streaming agreement) and Cat Financial (an equipment leasing facility). The cost to build a threestage crushing plant, in-valley heap leach and carbon-in-leach recovery plant has been pegged at $500 million.

Victoria expects the mine to produce 200,000 oz. of gold annually with a mining rate of 33,700 t/d. The all-in sustaining cost is US$638 per oz., making the Eagle project a low cost producer over a projected 11-year life.

The feasibility study used a gold price of US$1,250 per oz.

That gives the project an after-tax net present value of $508 million (with a 5% discount rate) and an internal rate of return of 29.5%. The payback period after tax is 2.8 years.

The Eagle and the nearby Olive deposits have proven and probable reserves of 2.7 million oz. of gold contained in 123 million tonnes grading 0.67 g/t gold. Measured and indicated resources inclusive of reserves total 4 million oz. gold contained in 191 million tonnes averaging 0.65 g/t gold. A further inferred resource of 500,000 oz. gold is hosted in 24 million tonnes of material grading 0.61 g/t gold.

The Eagle deposit has several ore types – oxide granodiorite, altered granodiorite, unaltered granodiorite, oxide metasedi20 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

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GOLDCORP, COFFEE ments, and unaltered metasediments. The largest ore sources are the oxide granodiorite (29%) and the unaltered granodiorite (42%). Taken together over the life of the mine, gold recovery will be 55%.

The Olive deposit will contribute ore from oxide, mixed and sulphide type ores.

Goldcorp, Coffee

Successful junior Kaminak Gold did the early work on the Coffee gold project, finding and outlining a substantial gold reserve and completing a feasibility study.

The study, released in early 2016, pegged preproduction capital costs at $291 million, sustaining costs and closure at $445 million, and included a $33 million (11%) contingency. That put the total capex at $1.6 billion – a not inconsiderable amount for a mine with a 10-year life that is expected to produce an average of 202,000 oz. of gold annually. www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:54 PM

Far left: Construction at Victoria Gold’s Eagle project in the Yukon Left: Layout of the Eagle site. CREDIT: VICTORIA GOLD Bottom: Goldcorp employee Chelsea Johnny at the Coffee gold project in the Yukon.

CREDIT: GOLDCORP

Coffee could pay back its development costs after taxes in only 2 years. The study put the after-tax NPV (at a 5% discount rate) at $445 million and the IRR at 37%.

Coffee could pay back its development costs after taxes in only 2 years. The study put the after-tax NPV (at a 5% discount rate) at $445 million and the IRR at 37%.

The feasibility study attracted the attention of several larger miners. But it was Goldcorp who acquired Kaminak for $520 million in July 2016.

Goldcorp got right to work and at the end of June 2018 released reserve figures. The company outlined proven and probable reserves of 46.4 million tonnes averaging 1.45 g/t gold and containing 2.2 million oz. An additional measured and indicated resource of 20 million tonnes at 1.21 g/t gold contains 780,000 oz. Total contained gold (including inferred resources) comes to just over 4 million oz.

Coffee is imagined as a high grade, open pit, heap leach development and Goldcorp expects to begin production in 2021, in time to form a key part of its plan to increase total production by 20% by 2021. The property contains structurally hosted hydrothermal gold mineralization. There is significant exploration potential both along strike and at depth. With luck, Goldcorp, would like to grow it into a large district scale operation.

Goldcorp is advancing the project on all fronts. In April, a collaboration agreement was signed with Tr’ondëk Hwëch’in.

The Yukon Environmental and Socio-Economic Board deemed the Coffee project adequate in August 2018, and public consultation was completed in November.

Meanwhile, permitting and engineering continues. There is a road as well as the mine to be permitted, and that work has just begun. Construction is expected to start in 2020.

Centerra Gold, Kemess Underground

Centerra Gold became the 100% owner of the Kemess project in B.C. with its acquisition of AuRico Metals in January 2018.

The deal included the former open pit mine and a 25,000 t/d conventional mill, road, power, tailings facility, rail load-out, camp and airstrip together valued at about $1 billion.

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AuRico produced a feasibility study in 2016 for an underground mine 6 km away from the processing plant, and this undoubtedly played a large part in Centerra’s offer. The study examined the development of a low cost panel caving mine. The feasibility looked at a base case and a consensus case that had slightly higher copper and silver prices.

Kemess Underground has a base case, after-tax NPV (at a 5% discount rate) of $289 million, or a consensus NPV of $421 million. The after-tax IRR would be 12.6% for the base case and 15.4% for the consensus case. The net cash flow after taxes was estimated at $746 million (base) or $969 million (consensus).

The study projected a life-of-mine annual production rate of 106,000 oz. of gold and 27 million lb. of copper. All-in sustaining costs would be US$718 per oz. for gold and US$1.44 per lb. copper, on a co-product basis. Taken on a by-product basis, the cost of producing an ounce of gold would be only US$244 per oz. over the life of mine.

Normal course permitting is soon to be complete, and development of the decline is slated to begin next year. First production is targeted for 2022. Pre-commercial capex is pegged at $450 million plus an additional $153 million in capitalized operating costs net of revenue.

The project hosts proven and probable reserves of 107.4 million tonnes at 0.54 g/t gold, 0.27% copper and 1.99 g/t silver. Total measured and indicated resources are 246.4 million tonnes grading 0.42 g/t gold, 0.22% copper and 1.75 g/t silver

CONTINUED ON PAGE 22

Mines go deeper.

Regulations are more complex.

Stakeholders are paying attention.

We’re not in mining because it’s easy.

We thrive on challenges golder.com

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21

2018-12-21 12:55 PM

BC & THE NORTHWEST

CENTERRA GOLD, KEMESS UNDERGROUND Above: Centerra Gold’s Kemess site, in B.C. CREDIT: CENTERRA GOLD Right: NorZinc’s Prairie Creek zinc-lead-silver project in the Northwest Territories CREDIT: NORZINC

for 3.3 million oz. of gold, 1.2 billion lb. of copper, and 13.9 million oz. of silver.

Developing Kemess Underground will keep Centerra busy for the next three years. But the company is looking ahead to the Kemess East property. The preliminary economic assessment for that suggests total measured and indicated resources of 113.1 million tonnes averaging 0.46 g/t gold, 0.38% copper and 1.94 g/t silver, containing 1.7 million oz. of gold, 954 million lb. of copper, and 7.1 million oz. of silver.

NorZinc, Prairie Creek

The Prairie Creek zinc-lead-silver project in the Northwest Territories may set a record for the longest mine development undertaking. Mineralization was discovered in 1924, and the first underground work was carried out in 1970. Hoping to corner the silver market, the Hunt brothers bought the property in 1980. Work continued until more than 90% of the surface facilities was complete for a 1000-t/d mine. The demise of the Hunt’s Procan Exploration Co. and subsequent bankruptcy of then-owner Cadillac Explorations left the project tied up in litigation until 1990.

Since acquiring the project in the early 1990s, NorZinc and its predecessor Canadian Zinc, have made advances on several fronts from where the Hunt brothers left the project. On the technical side, they have completed more than 78,000 metres of exploration drilling in almost 300 holes, and expanded the resources. NorZinc also converted resources to reserves and completed the 2017 feasibility study and has made progress in building relationships with the various Indigenous groups in the region.

Most importantly the focus of the project has become zinclead-silver rather than rely primarily on the silver content.

All of which is to say it has been 59 years since development work began, and close to 100 years since discovery. Even for modern mining projects this is an exceptionally long time.

NorZinc has been granted all the major operational permits – water licence, mine land use permit, and the Liard transfer facility permit. The company expects to receive an all season 22 | CANADIAN

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NORZINC, PRAIRIE CREEK road permit by mid-2019. The target date for mine start-up is August 2022.

In 2015 a mineral resource estimate was made for the Main quartz vein where most of the mining will take place. Measured an indicated resources were 5.5 million tonnes grading 178 g/t silver, 10.2% zinc and 11.6% lead. There are also inferred resources of 5.3 million tonnes at 199 g/t silver, 12.9% zinc and 8.7% lead.

Two other zones – the Stockwork and Stratabound – also have resources, but won’t be mined until much later in the mine life.

For the 2017 feasibility study, proven and probable reserves were calculated for the three zones. The Main quartz vein will provide most of the ore mined from 5.7 million tonnes grading 149.21 g/t silver, 8.74% zinc and 9.67% lead. Based on the reserves alone, the mine has a 15-year mine life.

A 1,200-t/d concentrator is planned with a new dense media separation plant between the crushers and grinding. Ore slurry will then undergo three stages of flotation. The mill will produce separate zinc and lead concentrates both containing significant silver – 135 to 150 g/t and 700 to 800 g/t silver, respectively.

Final tailings will be thickened in a new paste fill plant and used as backfill.

NorZinc anticipates pre-production capital cost will be $279 million including a contingency of $26 million.

Fortune Minerals, Nico

Fortune Minerals discovered the Nico deposit, which now has resources of cobalt, gold, bismuth and copper, in 1996. The www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:55 PM

FORTUNE MINERALS, NICO Test mining at Fortune Minerals’ Nico cobalt-gold-bismuth copper project in the Northwest Territories. CREDIT: FORTUNE MINERALS

company now plans to build a mine and concentrator in the Northwest Territories, 160 km northwest of Yellowknife, and a metals processing plant in Saskatchewan.

The project is in the permitting stage. Both the federal and Tlicho governments have approved the Nico mine and mill environmental assessment. Construction and operation will begin when the Type A water licence and land use permit are issued and financing has been secured.

Pre-production capital requirements in the Northwest Territories total $346.5 million, including $52.4 million for the open pit and $170 million for the mill and related infrastructure. No estimate has yet been made as the development costs for the underground portion of the deposit, but sustaining capital for the mine is estimated at $38.9 million.

Fortune has also received environmental approval from the province for its Saskatchewan metallurgical processing plant (SMPP). The $242.5-million hydrometallurgical facility will be located near Saskatoon.

Proven and probable open pit reserves at Nico total 32.5 million at 0.96 g/t gold, 0.11% cobalt, 0.14% bismuth and 0.04% copper. Measured and indicated open pit resources total 30 million tonnes averaging 1.1 g/t gold, 0.15% bismuth and 0.12% copper.

The underground portion of the deposit contains proven and probable reserves of 577,000 tonnes grading 4.96 g/t gold, 0.1% cobalt, 0.17% bismuth, and 0.02% copper. Underground measured and indicated resources come to 995,000 tonnes grading 1.85% gold, 0.07% bismuth and 0.16% copper.

Cassiar, Wildsky Resources

Wildsky’s Cassiar gold property in B.C. covers the entire Cassiar gold camp that was discovered in 1874. It has been the site of intense exploration and mining of both historical open pit and underground gold mines – Main (formerly Erickson), JANUARY 2019

19-23_CMJ Dec2018_BC Northwest.indd 23

Bain, Cusac, Taurus, Sable, Plaza and more along the Vollaug vein. These past producers are credited with 350,650 oz. of gold output.

Historic placer production (McDame, Snow, Troutline and Quartzrock Creeks) totalled about 74,500 oz., including a 40-oz. nugget.

The potential is there, and Wildsky is determined to restart production. If the Wildsky name is new to our readers, perhaps they may know the company better by its previous incarnations, China Minerals Mining or Hawthorne Gold.

The Table Mountain deposit yielded its first near surface gold veins in 1934-35. Ownership shifted and production was on-again, off-again until flooding put a stop to production in 2007. The property was placed on care and maintenance in 2011.

The history of the Taurus area is similar – discovery in 193435, and a brief period of production totalling 35,000 oz. of gold.

Generally speaking, the Cassiar camp consists of orogenic (mesothermal) auriferous quartz veins. The veins are well defined and characterized by white to clear bull quartz and lesser iron-magnesium carbonate, calcite and traces of sericite.

All of which is to say that if you go hunting for gold, go where the gold is.

Although no resource estimate has been tabled yet, Wildsky has been drilling both the Table Mountain tailings area and the Lucky soil grid anomaly. The tailings samples were subjected to both wet and dry gravity separation with head grades calculated CMJ at 2.56 and 2.18 g/t gold, respectively.

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TECHNOLOGY

STORNOWAY’S ORE SORTING SUCCESS

By Alisha Hiyate

First diamond mine to use the technology shares its results

W

henever the ore sorting plant at Stornoway Diamond’s Renard mine in Quebec is down, loud complaints can be heard from the operator in the control room, says Stornoway’s vice-president processing, Ian Holl.

“Even this morning, it stopped because we had an instrument air supply problem; the operator can feel the impact on the rest of the plant when he’s missing the ore sorting plant,” Holl said in an interview in December.

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The $22-million ore sorting plant was added to the Renard processing plant this year, and was in consistent operation by mid-year. It very quickly became a vital part of the operation.

While ore sorting is not a new technology, Renard is the first diamond mine globally to incorporate it into its processing plant. The technology is more common in industrial mineral operations, but given the issue of lower-grade ore generally in mining and energy costs for crush-

ing and grinding ore, it has potential for many types of mines.

On a site visit to Renard in November, CMJ toured both the processing plant and the underground mine. Last year was a pivotal one for Stornoway because of the work it’s done on both sides. As it incorporated its ore sorting circuit into the processing plant, it was also transitioning to underground mining at the Renard 2 kimberlite.

On the processing side, Stornoway www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:56 PM

Left and above: The Renard mine site in Quebec.

CREDIT: STORNOWAY DIAMOND

Ian Holl.

The ore sorting project was approved at the August 2017 board meeting – and eight months later, it was operational.

I believe that’s a major achievement – and in winter conditions as well.

– IAN HOLL, VICE-PRESIDENT PROCESSING

turned to ore sorting technology because of high levels of dilution in the orebodies at Renard. The miner, which achieved commercial production at Renard in early 2017, found that the high levels of hard waste rock (mainly gneissic granite) contributed to a high level of diamond breakage in the plant. In an interview last year, then CEO Matt Manson and COO Patrick Godin said breakage was about 10% higher than expected (the industry norm is 10-14%). It made sense JANUARY 2019

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that removing some of that hard material from the processing stream would yield better results.

Testing at the facilities of TOMRA, a leading manufacturer of sorting equipment, in Germany confirmed that, and the company decided to go ahead with the installation of a $22-million ore sorting plant.

“The ore sorting project was approved at the August 2017 board meeting – and eight months later, it was operational. I

believe that’s a major achievement – and in winter conditions as well,” Holl notes.

Overall, the integration of the ore sorting plant into the main plant went smoothly.

“There was hardly any production delay when we did the project implementation. It was a smooth transition.”

Nonetheless, the design included a bypass facility that allows the main processing plant to continue with producCONTINUED ON PAGE 26

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TECHNOLOGY

tion if the ore sorting plant is down.

“We had our hiccups, not so much with the NIR sorting machines but more improvements from a material flow and spillage perspective – any start-up of a new circuit, there’s some work that will need to be done,” Holl says.

Dramatic results Since late May or June the system has been quite stable and the company has seen a dramatic improvement in the operation of the process plant.

“To date so far, we have seen a waste reduction of 15% plus of head feed, and we’ve seen a positive impact on the process rates at various downstream processes after crushing,” Holl says.

There’s also been less diamond breakage, although it’s difficult to say how much of the reduction the ore sorting unit is responsible for, as the company has worked to minimize the issue holistically with multiple adjustments in the plant.

To date so far, we have seen a waste reduction of 15% plus of head feed, and we’ve seen a positive impact on the process rates at various downstream processes after crushing.

– IAN HOLL, VICE-PRESIDENT PROCESSING

One interesting benefit has been a saving on overall power consumption.

Because a good portion of the hard waste rock is being removed before secondary crushing and other processes, the plant is now consuming less power than it was before the ore sorting plant was installed.

“We’ve also seen an improved quality of the processed kimberlite that is going out,” Holl adds. “And because we are removing plus-15% of head feed, of the waste, the reduction in head feed allows us an increase in plant capacity as well.”

That’s not to say the process was simple. Holl notes the technology is not “plug and play” but requires a lot of optimization, fine tuning/calibration and hands-on monitoring. He also warns that just because it has been a big success for Renard it doesn’t mean that it will be a big success for every operation. Every solution is adjusted and calibrated for each individual application and tailored to address project specific demands, he says.

“It is really dependent on your type of ore, quantity of waste in the feed and can the machine distinguish between the various types of ore/rock lithology units that you want to reject or keep at the end of the day.”

TOMRA, which was naturally keen to

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www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:56 PM

see this new application of its technology succeed, was involved with the ore sorting plant design and had representatives onsite for the first three months of operation, Holl says. The company also offers ongoing support.

Above: At an ore drawpoint underground at the Renard mine; Right: Process engineer intern Sosthene Sow at the Renard plant.

Sensor-based sorting Stornoway uses TOMRA NIR (near infrared) sorters in its ore sorting circuit.

(It also uses XRT sorting, another type of sensor-based sorting that separates material according to atomic density, in its large diamond recovery circuit.)

The NIR sorter can differentiate between kimberlites and waste rock because of their different chemical composition. Those differences are visible through the application of NIR radiation, to which each element, molecule and crystal structure has a unique reflection/absorption response. The sorter is also known as a high capacity free-fall sorter, where the material is fed to the machine via a vibrating feeder and waste is rejected with a precise blast of air.

In Renard’s plant design, the material enters the ore sorting circuit after the primary jaw crusher and scrubbing circuit (which is necessary to make sure the material is very clean), and is sorted before it returns to the main plant at the cone crusher feed bin.

The plant was set up to take material in the 20-200 mm size class. The sorting machines are limited to a specific

size range to ensure optimum efficiency, however, so Stornoway has a primary rougher machine for feed from 60-200 mm and a secondary rougher machine that takes feed of 20-60 mm.

The waste then goes through a scavenging machine that’s programmed to recognize and eject kimberlite instead of waste rock types.

“It’s exactly the same machine, but it’s a scavenging machine and it looks at the kimberlite that is with the waste when it was ejected at the first stage, and then it ejects the kimberlite back into the process. So we use our scavenging machine to basically clean up the waste that we rejected out.”

Holl says the big success in implementing the ore sorting technology with Stornoway’s process flow design is a low kimberlite loss of less than 1%.

Stornoway will continue to fine-tune the ore sorting plant, and it’s also planning to add new personnel to help keep it running smoothly.

“We will have a dedicated maintenance and operational person in this area – that’s how important it is,” Holl says.

“It’s a bit of a finicky process – any

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CREDIT: STORNOWAY DIAMOND

x-ray is very finicky and you need to keep your hands on top of it and make sure that things are checked, cleaned and well maintained during operation. There are some operational requirements we need to do on a daily basis to ensure optimal efficiency of the waste rejection.”

With the ore sorting established, Stornoway’s principal processing challenge is the full recovery of the diamond size frequency distribution that was projected in its 2013 updated feasibility study.

Reduced breakage, better crushing conditions and careful management of the ore feed is expected to lead to improvements in this area.

Underground ramp-up Underground production at Renard reached the full design capacity of 6,000 t/d at the end of August, about two months behind schedule.

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TECHNOLOGY

While development of the open pits at Renard – a combined pit at Renard 2 and Renard 3 and a separate, longer-life but lower-grade pit at Renard 65 – had gone smoothly, underground development was slower than expected.

One issue was that the company had to change its underground mining method on the fly from blast-hole shrinkage stoping to assisted block caving.

Outgoing Stornoway president and CEO Matt Manson told Diamonds in Canada magazine in October that all the preproduction data the company had indicated the orebody was competent but that when the mining crews started opening up production stopes, they were getting natural caves.

The change in mining method to assisted block caving means a switch to horizontal panels from vertical, and will ultimately mean less blasting, less dilution and lower costs. In addition, the infrastructure and equipment required for both methods is the same.

The issues underground left Stornoway short of ore to the mill, and a plan

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Underground mining crew at Renard.

CREDIT: STORNOWAY DIAMOND

Now that underground mining is in full swing, Stornoway is looking at growing reserves and resources at Renard 3 and 4 and bringing some of that material into production sooner.

to extend the life of the shallow pit at Renard 2 and 3 to supply more ore last winter was stymied by bad conditions, said Manson, who was set to be succeeded as president and CEO by COO Patrick Godin in January.

“That proved to be unfeasible during the winter because of bad winter conditions, ice, restricted access, and health and safety issues in the pit,” Manson said.

“So we were caught short in the first half of the year during the ramp-up in what ore was available to supply the mill.”

The production shortfall, low initial grades in the underground, and some weakness in the diamond market prompted Stornoway to raise funds in October to shore up its balance sheet.

The $129-million financing mostly consists of loan principal payment deferrals and adjustments to streaming agreements that will give the company flexibility it needs until it achieves a pos-

itive cash flow in 2019.

“The objective now is to deliver the project’s cash flow potential,” Manson said, adding the big capital spending is now behind the junior.

In its most recent reported sales at presstime (for the third quarter of 2018), Renard diamonds achieved an average price of US$103 per carat.

Now that underground mining is in full swing, Stornoway is looking at growing reserves and resources at Renard 3 and 4 and bringing some of that material into production sooner.

As part of that plan, Stornoway is exploring the potential for another open pit at Renard 4 that would require a water retention structure within Lagopède Lake, but would allow the company to take advantage of the extra capacity in the processing plant that has been opened up by the ore sorting circuit. Processing of a 13,550-tonne bulk sample from the surface of Renard 4 is ongoing, with three “special” stones (10 carats or more) so far recovered. Development of a second open pit at the kimberlite would allow access to 2 million carats of diamonds in the top 140 metres of the pipe that are currently classified as indicated resources.

Total probable reserves supporting a 14-year mine life at Renard (outlined in 2016) were 22.3 million carats contained in 33.4 million tonnes grading 67 carats CMJ per hundred tonnes. www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:56 PM

Q&A

BUILDING MINES ON BUDGET

Photo: michaeljung, iStockimages.com

Why the contractor-miner dynamic needs to change During the last boom period in mining, major projects routinely went over budget and fell behind schedule. An analysis by McKinsey & Co. of public information on 35 mining projects built between 2002 and 2015 showed that 30 were over budget and 27 saw significant delays.

As commodity prices start to recover from a several-year slump and the industry starts to build again, a new report aims to help companies improve that record.

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Entitled “Avoiding the mistakes of the past: A CEO’s checklist in a commodity upswing,” the report describes how a disconnect between miners and the contractors they hire to build new projects has contributed to the industry’s poor performance, and also details nine recommendations for mining companies.

CMJ recently spoke with Piotr Pikul, one of the report’s authors and a partner in McKinsey’s Toronto office, about the report’s findings and how companies can work more effectively with contractors.

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Q&A

CMJ:

Your report makes several recommendations for mining companies that you believe will lead to better project outcomes when they start building new mines again. The first recommendation is to pay greater attention to the art of project leadership. Can you explain what that means?

Essentially, the big focus of all capital projects PP: in mining is on what I call the science of project management: so what are the systems, what are the processes,

The report noted that owners and contractors are not on the same page when it comes to pinpointing why projects went over budget in the last cycle or took longer than expected. Why do you think there’s a disconnect there?

The reason why the contractors Piotr Pikul: and owners are not aligned is, we believe, based on what I would call the adversarial relationship

between them. This is most often due to the way the contracts are set up, there’s a big push – partly by the people who finance contracts – to have contracts that are lump sum contracts.

This can create tension between the owner and the contractor because the price is agreed up front, they have different financial incentives, and there is a challenge in the misalignment of risk and responsibilities related to the project.

I always say that in mining, the owner always pays. If you have a bad storm on your mine site, the owner pays. If you have a strike, the owner tends to pay. If your contractor performs poorly, you end up paying, one way or the other. So it’s a bit of a fallacy when owners try to transfer the risk to contractors. Because at the end of the day on these major projects, the typical way people do this in the contracts is they have this term “liquidated damages”, so there’s liquidated damages you can get from the contractor if they underperform. On a $2-billion project, if you overrun by half a billion, liquidated damages will never cover half a billion – that’s the case on all these major mining projects.

So I think the reason why they are not on the same page is they are trying to optimize different things. For example, we have seen some instances when contractors bid for a project, they may believe there is a big incentive to underbid to win out in a competitive process. But in these cases, they often then rely on change orders and claims to make a profit. So right here you see a big disconnect.

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CMJ:

One of the themes that runs through several recommendations is an emphasis on collaboration and getting everyone on the same page, pulling in the same direction. Can you speak to how companies can do that when they’re working with not just their own employees, but also all these different contractors on a very large complex project?

I think there are a couple ways. One is a contractual PP: way – I mentioned adversarial contracting. We believe that there is potential in mining to have more integrated contracting – contracts where everyone’s incentives are aligned and everybody’s pulling in the same direction, and actually people have an incentive to help – one contractor helping another contractor because that’s how the incentive system is designed. This is not very common in this industry at all, but contractually, you could get a start there.

Photo: Drazen Lovric, iStockimages.com

CMJ:

what are the standards you need to have? And obviously all these are super important, however, what we’ve noticed is that there are a number of soft factors which are the mindset of the team, the attitudes, the organizational culture – that are often key to success. To give you an example, at a project I was recently involved with in the Americas, it seemed like the project had the science in place – the system, processing, standards were in fairly good Essentially, the big shape. But when we looked at the culture of the team, it was focus of all capital very misaligned, suboptimal, projects in mining as a result the decision is on what I call the and making was poor, their science of project ability to practically manage management: performance, to read the so what are the warning signals and intervene was very suboptimal and that’s systems, what are the processes, what why the project suffered.

So what we call the art of are the standards project leadership are these you need to have? soft factors that we believe are one of the key enablers of these large capital projects.

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2018-12-21 12:57 PM

The second angle is I think there’s a lot you can do even in the current environment by just taking a one-team approach – a one team mindset. I worked recently with a distressed South American mining project that had a significant budget overrun.

They figured out a way to get everybody on board by saying ‘Look, we are struggling. If we continue like this, the project will not be finished, you won’t get paid, you will lose your jobs, so we need to do things differently.’ They moved to a system where they had daily meetings of everybody on the construction side – key contractors and owners, and focused on joint identification of root causes of problems and figuring out how they can solve them. And at least on this project, after Why not have this initial overrun and being a productivity distressed, they stabilized the moment when you project and were able to finish start a meeting it. Overall, they still went over budget, but it was much better where you talk than it had looked before. about how you

CMJ:

Are there other industries that mining executives can learn from?

I’ve been focused PP: most on natural resources, so looking outside

can reduce waste and improve performance on the construction side? Why not have competitions where people come up with productivity ideas and are focused on value?

in construction is actually lower today than 20 years ago – which is mind-boggling, right? Because in every other sector of the economy, productivity’s actually increasing – the whole digital revolution is helping. Manufacturing has been growing productivity globally at 3.6% a year. So when we talk about these overruns, it’s obviously big news on a big mining project but go talk to any of your neighbours who are trying to renovate their house or build a house – it’s the same story. So it’s an industry that’s notorious for this and I think there’s a linkage to the second recommendation in our report – treat productivity like you treat safety.

If you think about safety in mining, this is an industry where for decades there was an abysmal record. Then at some point, the mining companies got their act together and said ‘this cannot continue.’ Safety in mining today is at a much higher level and there’s a safety culture – people start their meetings with a safety moment and it’s fantastic.

Why not do something similar for productivity? Why not have a productivity moment when you start a meeting where you talk about how you can reduce waste and improve performance on the construction side? Why not have competitions where people come up with productivity ideas and are focused on value? To me, it’s most important in mining because in mining projects, you have two industries with really poor productivity performance. Mining productivity performance has been poor – it’s improved a little bit lately as commodity prices went down – but in the whole boom from 2000 to 2012, productivity was lower year by year.

Photo: SeventyFour, iStockimages.com

Photo: Drazen Lovric, iStockimages.com

of mining – in oil and gas, chemicals, energy, utilities – I have not really seen much better examples of this. But I think people should have their eyes open on innovation all the time. This example of integrated contracting comes from the U.S. in the context of healthcare – building a hospital, where one of the owners experimented with an integrated contract. That’s a little bit smaller than a typical mining project, but I think people should look across industries. In mining, there’s a bit of a fallacy – miners always say that mining is different. Obviously, they have a point, but I think they sometimes miss out on learning from others.

CMJ:

In Toronto, we’ve been reading in the news about issues between the provincial transit agency Metrolinx and their contractors – so it’s something that not only the mining industry is struggling with.

You’re right. We have a report we did last year on PP: the construction industry globally and one of the big takeaways is it’s an industry that has suffered with really

poor productivity growth. In places like the U.S., productivity

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CMJ:

It sounds a little bleak when you put it that way – when you’re talking about combining two industries that have such poor productivity track records.

PP: It shows that there’s potential to improve.

CMJ:

That was my next question. In the surveys that you’ve done, companies and contractors have shared some examples of innovative practices that they’ve employed that made a positive difference in project outcomes – can you share a couple of examples?

Sure, one example would be on a remote mine site PP: in the desert in South America, a huge project with 10,000 people on site at peak construction from lots of different

contractors, different nationalities, different cultures, different languages. In this case, they instituted a one-team approach and got all those people solving issues together.

Another example has to do with project optimization and project value improvement. Most often what I see is that people treating this as a one-off exercise before the financing decision. Before they sanction a project they say, let’s take a quick look and see if there’s any optimization potential.

In reality, the best practice is you look continually at this. In operations people talk about continuous improvement – but you don’t hear that in project development. Why wouldn’t you have continuous project value improvement from the early concept stage of a mining project through the scoping study, prefeasibility and feasibility – at every stage, have that value element and constant optimization?

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There are tools that allow you to do this to get to what the optimal project is. For example, one of the methodologies we use is something called a minimal technical solution and it sounds daunting to many clients because they say, ‘Oh my God, you want to cut my project to the bone, to the minimum and I don’t like that.’ But it’s just a methodology to identify what functionality you’re trying to get, what is the minimum you need to build to get that and then what are the different add-ons that you can build on top of that with different tradeoffs? That way, you’re able to identify the optimal solution, for instance, in design.

The problem is most projects start with some overengineered, customized way of building, let’s say a processing facility and then people come in to value engineer and they just look at incrementally, let me try to cut 5-to-10%. Why 5-to-10%? Because those are round numbers and it sounds like it’s the right direction. But In operations after let’s say they’ve optimized capex by 10%, do they have an people talk optimal project? They have no about continuous clue because they don’t know improvement – but where they started, they don’t you don’t hear know where they finished. that in project And in fact they may have cut development. Why too much or typically too little.

So that’s another example wouldn’t you have of looking at this value continuous project improvement throughout. value improvement The last one I wouldn’t from the early forget is procurement concept stage of practices. In the last half a a mining project decade, there’s been a lot of through the scoping progress in mining companies study, prefeasibility reducing their external spend in operations because and feasibility – at they’ve been quite vigilant in every stage, have understanding the economics that value element of their suppliers, looking at and constant alternative suppliers, actually having proper processes. But optimization? this does not seem to have translated to capital projects.

In some examples I’ve seen in capital projects where people employ those procurement effectiveness tools for operations, you can get pretty high savings. At one underground mine recently, they had an over 10% reduction in pricing for major tunnelling equipment by employing what’s pretty common in the industry toolkit in procurement but historically hasn’t been done in capital projects. Historically, they would sole-source from one supplier because they believe that they’re the best and not really focus on the cost as much.

Photo: andresr, iStockimages.com

Q&A

www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 12:57 PM

CMJ:

Can you think of any mining companies that already do a lot of the things that you’re advocating?

It’s hard to pinpoint specific companies – there are PP: a number of players that do some elements. I think the reality is also that quite a

Photo: shotbydave, iStockimages.com

Photo: andresr, iStockimages.com

number of companies were building new mines in the 2000-12 period. And then in 2013, they largely stopped I feel like what we because of the commodity downturn. So only right now have in our report, in the last year or so, they are this checklist is restarting projects, looking a useful tool for at them again. Thus one of executives because the challenges is it’s very easy they can look at for mining companies to lose this and say, ‘Let’s that project building, project construction DNA. Because make this the DNA unlike operations, you don’t of our company.’ build projects all the time. You Because markets have your major project and are not forgiving then you’re done. People may and when projects move on and so forth, so it’s go south, often it’s quite hard to keep that.

In an ideal world, the smart the CEOs that are thing to do is to build when let go and it’s sad commodity prices are low. because they’ve But even some of the largest been frankly I think mining houses in the world sometimes misled that maybe talked about being by other people on counter-cyclical, when prices went down in 2013-14, they their team saying stopped. Basically they put the ‘the project is fine.’ shovels away.

I feel like what we have in our report, this checklist is a useful tool for executives because they can look at this and say, ‘Let’s make this the DNA of our company.’ Because markets are not forgiving and when projects go south, often it’s the CEOs that are let go and it’s sad because they’ve been frankly I think sometimes misled by other people on their team saying ‘the project is fine.’ CEOs are typically not experts in these capital projects, but this is the easiest way to get fired if a mining project goes sideways.

CMJ:

working very closely together with lots of feedback and short iterations. They produce a minimal viable product, which is an application, in a couple of weeks and they iterate and make it better and better. And this is in contrast to the traditional way that software is done which is a waterfall approach – long timelines and I’ll show you stuff when it’s done and then you comment.

I would argue that another innovative way to think about mining projects is to consider an agile approach, because mining projects are very siloed – the engineers are working separately and then they share when they are done. So in value improvement, for example, why can’t you have a small team that’s co-located and consists of the owners, different contractors, people from operations working together and breaking the silos, coming up with these sprints over a couple of weeks, actually coming up with a solution that you then refine?

I think the industry would really benefit from something like this, both for making sure the design is more appropriate, more optimal, and then the execution productivity challenges CMJ are covered.

Read the full report at www.mckinsey.com/industries/capital-projectsand-infrastructure/our-insights/avoiding-mistakes-of-the-past-a-ceoschecklist-in-a-commodity-upswing.

Are there any last words of advice you want to leave us with?

People in the software industry talk about working PP: in an agile way – it’s a buzzword obviously, but what it means in software app development is people co-locate, JANUARY 2019

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The Buyers Guide is published every November and is also available online via our website. You can register your company at any time. There is no charge to be listed. Just follow the prompts once you click on “Buyers Guide” from our index at canadianminingjournal.com.

For any questions about subscribing or having your company listed on our Buyers’ Guide, please contact us at 416-510-6891 or 1-888-502-3456, ext. 2 or 43734. You can email the Publisher, Robert Seagraves, directly at rseagraves@canadianminingjournal.com.

ADVERTISERS INDEX Bag Supplies Canada . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . bagsupplies.ca ConMico . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . conmico.com Elemental Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . elementalcontrols.com Fortune Minerals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . fortuneminerals.com Golder ..... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . golder.com MacLean Engineering . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . macleanengineering.com McEwen Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . mcewenmining.com Nuna Logistics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . nunalogistics.com Sandvik Mining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . rocktechnology.sandvik SRK ........ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... srk.com SME ....... . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 ................ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . http://community.smenet.org/currenttrendsinminingfinance/home?ssopc=1 Steinert US . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . steinertus.com TD Micronic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . tdmicronic.com Victoria Gold . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vitgoldcorp.com 34 | CANADIAN

MINING JOURNAL

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www.canadianminingjournal.com

2018-12-21 2:05 PM

THE NORTHERN MINER PODCAST Offers a Fresh Take on Mining Industry Analysis

Expert coverage and analysis of the week’s events in junior mining and exploration by The Northern Miner Editor-in-Chief John Cumming, MSc (Geol), staff writer Richard Quarisa BA, MA (Jour & Comm), and senior staff writer Trish Saywell BA, MA, MSc (Jour).

Distributed through The Northern Miner website and weekly newsletter (both free access) and available on iTunes Podcast and SoundCloud.

Listen for yourself at: www.soundcloud.com/northern-miner or by searching for “The Northern Miner Podcast“ in your favourite podcast listening app.

Podcast Sponsorship Opportunities Available

SPOTLIGHT SPONSOR • • •

MINING MINUTE

Your company logo on podcast page on both NorthernMiner.com and Soundcloud.com Also featured on all podcast promo house ads Your company mentioned by podcast host at the beginning and the end of the episode

• • •

Four 1-minute interviews over one month Interview conducted by TNM reporter Full distribution stats for each episode

For More Information Please Contact:

Joe Crofts @ jcrofts@northernminer.com Michael Winter @ mwinter@northernminer.com 416-510-6816

Sales Representative





Sales Manager

416-510-6772

The Northern Miner • 225 Duncan Mill Rd., Ste. 320, Toronto, ON M3B 3K9 • www.northernminer.com

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